‘BIG TOP’ SECRETS
Going behind the scenes of Cirque du Soleil’s ‘Amaluna’
The international sensation Cirque du Soleil has erected its big top in the parking lot at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center for a return engagement following last summer’s success.
This summer the show is “Amaluna,” a production that’s been touring since 2012. Borrowing elements from Shakespeare’s play “The Tempest,” it takes place on a mysterious island inhabited by goddesses. Queen Prospera directs her daughter’s coming of age ritual by causing a storm that washes up a group of young men on the shore.
It’s directed by Tony-winner Diane Paulus. According to “Amaluna”’s head of wardrobe, Larry Edwards, it’s the first Cirque show directed by someone from the Broadway world.
“Our whole band is female, which is great. They rock out really hard,” said aerialist Mei Bouchard.
If you take a close look around the traveling village that is Cirque, you’ll notice there’s a smaller second tent that’s off limits to the general public. This is where the performers lounge, train and condition themselves and even review video to see if there are
any areas of their performance that need fine tuning.
It’s where scenery artists apply paint touch-ups and a crew takes on the big task of ensuring that all the costumes are clean, pressed and show-ready. The laundry alone takes six hours to complete each day after a performance. Working in shifts, the wardrobe crew’s day starts at 10 a.m. and finishes as late as 11:30 p.m. “Amaluna” has four full-time touring members and adds three members recruited from the city they’re visiting.
“Some (wardrobe) pieces have lasted seven years.
Some must be replaced every city,” said Edwards, who is Australian. One example of costumes that have to be replaced every time “Amaluna”
travels to a new city is the one worn by Chinese pole acrobat/gymnast Evgeney Kurkin. The friction from a 10-meter drop night
after night causes significant wear and tear. “When it rips, it becomes a safety issue,” Edwards added.
Featuring a female-majority cast, there are a noteworthy number of wigs in the production. Because of the athletic movement of the circus arts, extra precautions must be taken to secure the wigs, Edwards said. The performer’s hair must be tightly braided, covered with a hairnet and braided and pinned to the wig, which could be human hair or synthetic.
Some performers, such as Bouchard, require as many as 30 hairpins.
“We only lost a wig (during a performance) once,” Edwards said.
It is six days before “Amaluna”’s Philly area premiere. Bouchard, one of
the valkyrie storm-bringers in the show, is about to climb to the very top of the big top for a run-through of the solo portion of her aerial straps segment, under the watchful eye of the stage manager. Because the cast has had two weeks off, after completing a run in another city, this rehearsal is important.
“We do a lot of spinning, a lot of fast and powerful motions. Just hearing the audience’s reaction as we’re flying over them ... we feed off their energy,” said Bouchard, a Florida resident who auditioned for Cirque du Soleil when she was 18, and has performed with Cirque for more than four years.
Bouchard is later joined by two additional women storm-bringers for a beginning-of-run
rehearsal. The co-aerialists are from Russia and Brazil, and according to “Amaluna” publicist Mami Ohki, neither of them speaks English. Typical of a Cirque production, the cast and crew is a melting pot representing 26 different countries.
Like many of the cast and crew, Ohki often uses the Monday day-off to explore the city they’re visiting. “I like Philadelphia. I enjoy Old City,” she said.
Edwards said that touring with Cirque is “the ultimate working holiday.”
“Amaluna” travels in 85 trucks, 78 trailers, carrying close to 2,000 tons of equipment, plus a mobile kitchen, offices, warehouses, concession tents and more. The site takes eight days to set up and three days to deconstruct.